pheasant-on-the-bone

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

When we’re new to adulthood, it doesn’t immediately occur to all of us that you’re almost always allowed to leave a situation, because growing up we’re forced to stay in situations until someone dismisses us and/or takes us home, or if we do leave on our own accord there’s someone waiting at home to say “we don’t quit in this family!” Boring party? You can leave. You don’t like the lecture? You can walk out. New doctor not working out? You can end the appointment, you don’t need to wait for them to dismiss you. Bad date? You can just go home. Leaving a situation prematurely might have consequences, but unless you’re under arrest or serving prison time, it’s pretty much always allowed.

–commenter Allison @ askamanager

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@ fic readers who write play by play comments that highlight your favorite passages and why you like them, please know you are the best humans to exist and please don’t stop what you’re doing

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

anne boleyn :)

reverse unpopular opinion meme

Brains, charm, ambition, compassion, affection, and in the end, so much courage. She was just so brave.

Anne knew her own value and refused to accept less than she believed herself to be worth. She’d been hand-picked and mentored by Margaret of Austria, one of the most respected women in Europe, and had then served & learned from Queen Claude for years. She obviously set her sights high from the beginning with Henry Percy; even if her contemporaries (and even historians...too funny) thought the future Earl of Northumberland was “out of her league” or whatever, Anne had total confidence that her education and experience (and Howard lineage) made her completely suited to become a countess. So when the king came calling, a man to whom Anne was probably attracted in more ways than one and whose affection could potentially offer the Boleyns so many quick/short-term benefits, she was brave enough to say no--not because she wanted to “steal” anyone else’s husband, not because she’d ever dreamed of being queen, but because she knew she was worth more. She wanted legitimate children, a household to run, probably a title...I think that she loved Henry, but wasn’t going to just throw her degree years of Continental education away for him, and frankly?

Of course I admire her learnedness, her ideas and her willingness to talk about those ideas, her patronage of the arts...all of that’s admirable and interesting.

But also...her capacity for love? It warms my heart. Her closeness to her mother, brother, and of course her daughter...whew. Gets me every time. The fact that Elizabeth Boleyn was her constant companion for years & that Anne was crying “oh my mother, my mother!” in the Tower--that she loved her brother so dearly that their closeness was exploited by her enemies--that she made sure to take in her sister Mary’s son after she was widowed... The way she kept newborn Elizabeth on a pillow beside her at court, then spoiled her rotten when they couldn’t be together...! And then there’s the possibility that Anne forfeited her last chance to proclaim her innocence (on the scaffold) to protect those same people: her aging parents and her vulnerable, oh-so-young child. Ugh.

In the final song from the forthcoming “Boleyn” musical, Anne sings:

Will someone tell my sweet little girl I loved her well and true?

And like... 💔 😭

Tying into that, her charity and genuine concern for the welfare of the people is so important. George Wyatt writes that she gave £1500/year to the poor, which amounts to appx. £662,000 today. Even if that number is wildly exaggerated, we know that on Maundy Thursday 1536 (the Thursday before Easter), she distributed £31, 3 shillings and 9 and a half pence--the equivalent of £13,764.17 today.* Not exactly pocket change. And most significantly of all, she fought to use the wealth from the dissolved monasteries to benefit the people rather than the royal treasury (and thereby, arguably, herself as well) and doing so most likely cost her her life. 

*(figures from The AB Files here, calculations/conversions done via the UK National Archives here) 

Finally, her bravery. To endure what she did in the span of, what, three weeks? To quote Susan Bordo, “The person she was closest to in the world–her brother–had been executed on the most hideous and shameful of charges. Still recovering from a miscarriage, her body and mind undoubtedly assaulted by hormonal changes and unstable moods, she had been sent to prison on absurd, concocted charges... She knew she would never see her daughter again. She had been given reason to hope that she would be allowed to live, only to have those hopes crushed at her sentencing. In a sense, she had already been through dozens of dyings.”

And still she defended herself eloquently at her trial and walked calmly to the scaffold. We can only imagine that she was terrified and grieving, yet witnesses thought she looked more beautiful and regal than ever before on both occasions. What a queen. Figuratively and literally.

to sum up, that Ives quote really does say it all, doesn’t it?

A woman in her own right - taken on her own terms in a man’s world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex...taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell’s assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage.

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

This thread omg

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[pheasant-on-the-bone]

for chinese new year they get all these famous actors and comedians together and they do a lil show and one of the comedians was like “i was in a hotel in america once and there was a mouse in my room so i called reception except i forgot the english word for mouse so instead i said ‘you know tom and jerry? jerry is here’

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

The Queens as Reductress headlines, part 2

(Part One)

Aragon:

Boleyn:

Seymour:

Cleves:

Howard:

Parr:

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

Congratulations to the couple people on my dash who recently got vaccinated despite needle phobias. You did an important thing to protect yourself and others even though it’s scary for you, and I think that’s pretty awesome. 💜👍🏽

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Jane, sighing sadly: I don’t know I just… I can’t seem to do anything right now…

Anne: I never thought I’d have to say this, but there is only space in this family for one unstable cousin and I have held that title for a very long time. So, you are going to have to get it together.

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

This is a great response and I am going to use it!

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

INED is reaching the Ultimate Pain Crescendo. The next few updates will be very hard for all of you and absolutely thrilling schadenfreude for me. Buckle up!

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

Henry, getting married for the 5th time: Do you ever feel like your life is on a constant loop?

Kat: It feels more like a downward spiral.  

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

Probably a smart move!

hi i just wanted to say that i know i haven’t left any comments on INED but I AM KEEPING UP and I AM NOT HAPPY I AM VERY ANGRY

*very quietly* i hope there is a happy ending for all parties involved

but anyway keep up the AMAZE work and i am sending you so much light and love 🤍

Ha ha, I'm glad you're still reading and also that you're angry, because...that is in fact the correct emotion to be experiencing at this point in INED. :) Do you see a way for Jane and Katherine to *both* have a happy ending?

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

Well...only because you love Jane. She is sweet, but...she’s made some mistakes, hasn’t she? And Katherine is just going further and further downhill...

hi i just wanted to say that i know i haven’t left any comments on INED but I AM KEEPING UP and I AM NOT HAPPY I AM VERY ANGRY

*very quietly* i hope there is a happy ending for all parties involved

but anyway keep up the AMAZE work and i am sending you so much light and love 🤍

Ha ha, I'm glad you're still reading and also that you're angry, because...that is in fact the correct emotion to be experiencing at this point in INED. :) Do you see a way for Jane and Katherine to *both* have a happy ending?

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

IT’S PERFECT AND I LOVE IT AND YOU ALL SHOULD READ IT.

Because @pheasant-on-the-bone said I could and I'm very angry at Jane

[pheasant-on-the-bone]

hi i just wanted to say that i know i haven’t left any comments on INED but I AM KEEPING UP and I AM NOT HAPPY I AM VERY ANGRY

*very quietly* i hope there is a happy ending for all parties involved

but anyway keep up the AMAZE work and i am sending you so much light and love 🤍

Ha ha, I'm glad you're still reading and also that you're angry, because...that is in fact the correct emotion to be experiencing at this point in INED. :) Do you see a way for Jane and Katherine to *both* have a happy ending?